


Meeting Halfway

by Samnyeong



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, University AU, Wonhui - Freeform, bookworm!wonwoo, library worker!jun, side soonhoon, silent admiration from afar, silliness, why is the first tag that comes up with library in it "library sex"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 00:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8229604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samnyeong/pseuds/Samnyeong
Summary: Junhui is a morning person, Wonwoo is not.Wonwoo is a night owl, Junhui is not.(aka, Wonwoo can never catch that cute part timer's shift)





	

It was a complete accident, they were never meant to have met. Well, "met" isn't exactly the right word, they've never should have "seen each other." No, no, that wasn't right either. They should have never been "in the same room together." That sounds about accurate.

Wonwoo didn't know how he let Soonyoung persuade him into going to the library with him at freaking 6am in the morning, normally he would still be curled up in his nice and warm bed like _normal healthy people_.

Perhaps it was the pressure of the upcoming Chem midterm that he hadn't spent enough time preparing for, or maybe Wonwoo just figured he could go back to sleep right after this just to make his friend happy, and more importantly, stop pestering him with texts.

He couldn't understand the world of these so-called "morning people" who just have this urge to be productive the moment the sun comes out. Please, they were in college, how could those people still exist? You're either _still awake_ at 6am, or you wake up at a shocking (not really) 1pm. There is no in-between.

"Why do we have to come all the way across campus? There are plenty of other libraries we could have gone to..." Wonwoo mumbled, allowing Soonyoung to practically drag him across the street.

"Because this library is the best! It's open for 24/5, and the people there are super helpful when it comes to finding resources. Just so you know, you will need the help, it's huge, man-" Soonyoung continued to ramble on, praising his lord that was the library. It was strange because Soonyoung had never been the studious type, yet he thought very highly of this library, apparently. Guess it should be worth checking out.

Once they entered the library, Wonwoo was met with a comforting cool breeze. The AC was just right, and there were large windows on the side if people enjoyed reading under natural lighting more, without having to actually go outside and potentially get a sunburn, of course.

"They also have an underground section, and the second floor is really nice, too! It's just super nice, okay?" Soonyoung was still going on about all the things he loved about the place, but Wonwoo was already pretty fascinated himself by the shelves and shelves of pure knowledge he could use as copy- _reference_ material.

"I love this place." Wonwoo breathed, reaching over to the nearest shelf and pulling out the first book he sees with careful fingers. Soonyoung looked like he was still going to continue giving praise, but noticed that Wonwoo had completely immersed himself in the reading material. It was strange, how could someone be so immersed in a mere encyclopedia?

So immersed, in fact, that he had not noticed a figure approaching him from his right.

"Excuse me. Um, excuse me!" The owner of the voice reached over and tapped Wonwoo on the shoulder.

Wonwoo physically jumped from the shock, almost dropping the book in the process. He turned to look at his "offender", but all hostile thoughts evaporated into thin air as he was met by the warmest smile he's ever seen plastered on what people may call "the face of perfection". The guy was just a little bit taller than Wonwoo... or was it just his hairstyle? Wonwoo couldn't really tell. What he did notice was the name tag on his uniform. "JUN - part time worker".

Huh, he didn't know the library offered paid jobs, he wondered what the requirements were...

"Sorry to have interrupted you, but you can sit down over here if you want. You've been standing there for quite a while, so..." The worker, Jun, said while pulling out a chair at a desk near them.

"Oh, um, thank you. Sorry, I was distracted..."

"No, it's nice to see people enjoying their time here." Jun replied nonchalantly, his smile hadn't wavered at all. Soonyoung was right, the workers were pretty well-trained here.

Wonwoo had wanted to enjoy the rest of his time buried in more books, but he couldn't help getting distracted by the worker's movements. He was very quick to approach people, offering help, and he seemed a little restless when he had nothing to do at the counter. Wonwoo caught sight of him making faces at his own reflection on the dark computer screen in front of him at one point, and he couldn't help finding that adorable.

Before he knew it, Wonwoo had spent way more time just staring at the part timer than actually reading or studying, which was unusual. He had never really shown much interest in what his own friends were doing, much less a random stranger he just had a one-line conversation with.

When Soonyoung figured it was breakfast time, he came over to "collect" Wonwoo, expecting him to have a pile of books in front of him. He was half-right, but the pile of books were mostly unread, and were only there for the purpose of hiding Wonwoo's suspicious stalker-like stares from Jun.

"You ready to go? Whoa, are you going to borrow all of these?" Soonyoung asked, his eyes bulging slightly at the tall stack on the table.

"Uh, no, I'm good." Wonwoo replied quickly, not wanting to have direct contact with the part timer again, he had a feeling he might burst into flames or something like that one vampire franchise that was apparently very popular among his female peers.

"All right then. Let's go, I'm starving! Besides, we never get to have breakfast together because you're such a sleepyhead!" Soonyoung didn't seem to bother with using his inside voice in the library, but at least they were leaving now. Wonwoo tried his best to pretend he had no idea who this crazy loud person was as he made quick steps towards the doors.

"Oh, see you, Jun!" Soonyoung suddenly called towards the counter before exiting the building. As the doors swung close behind them, Wonwoo caught sight of Jun waving back at them, and immediately turned to his friend as soon as they were out of the quiet zone.

"You know him?!"

"Well, yeah, pretty well, actually? We were in the same dorm during freshman year, and we're in the same college so we have quite a few classes together-"

"Why didn't you say so?!"

Soonyoung arched an eyebrow at Wonwoo, the latter rarely raised his voice, "What's up? ...Don't tell me... you're interesting in him?" A smirk immediately stretched across Soonyoung's face as he poked Wonwoo in the arm repeatedly in a teasing manner, "Really? Really? Is our little 'married-to-the-books' boy finally growing up?"

"It's not like that." Wonwoo insisted, but it was no use.

"It's going to be hard on you though. Just so you know, Jun _only_ works morning shifts, and the guy is always busy doing some other extracurricular stuff so it'll be hard to catch him on a free day. But hey, I'm rooting for you guys." Soonyoung said cheerfully, slapping Wonwoo on the back encouragingly, "Oh yeah, there's something else you need to know about Jun."

"What?" Wonwoo sighed tiredly, he couldn't believe he still had to spend his entire breakfast time with this ball of metaphorical fire.

"He goes to sleep at 9pm everyday. Yeah, I don't know how he does it, but he does. He legit can't stay awake, it has to be some sort of sickness. Then again, there's you, who can't wake up before twelve and barely get to your 11:30am classes."

Wonwoo pondered over the odds. Finally someone interesting enough to have caught his attention came along, and yet they were blessed as complete opposites. This was going to be hard, but Wonwoo was going to try...

Or at least that was what he thought, but after the last time, Wonwoo just couldn't bring himself to wake up earlier than 9am. It was already a huge improvement from his usual wake up time, but still far off from what his goal was.

He continued to miss Jun's shift, and just like that, he wasn't able to see him again until a couple of weeks later when he got to the library at 12am midnight. He figured that even though he couldn't see the cute blonde anymore he still enjoyed spending time at the place itself. But as fate would have it, when he approached his usual spot, someone else had already taken it.

And that someone else, was Jun. A _sleeping_ Jun, to be exact.

As quietly as possible, Wonwoo pulled out the chair opposite from him and sat down. It's been so long since he could admire his features at such close proximity, more like, it's been so long since they were in the same room at all.

He chuckled slightly when Jun's head started to loll to the side, but before it hit the window, his body suddenly lurched awake, straightened itself, then allowed him to continue his dozing.

How endearing.

"Hm... OH MY GOD DON'T SUCK MY BLOOD!" Jun suddenly shouted as he bolted fully awake, almost falling out of his chair at the sight of Wonwoo, "Oh, oh, hey, haven't we met?" The tanned boy then started to laugh sheepishly at his own reaction. "I'm so sorry, I was reading this thing my friend recommended to me... it turned out to be terrible, but I guess I was more into it than I thought...? I sure hope not."

"What are you doing here so late?" Wonwoo couldn't help asking despite the randomness of the question. He wasn't the best at socializing, it was a wonder how he and Soonyoung became friends.

"My friend, Jihoon, works the night shift. He claims that he has a stalker so I'm kind of here as his bodyguard." He leaned in closer to Wonwoo, unknowingly causing the latter to freeze up slightly at the small action, "But if you ask me, he's probably secretly enjoying the attention because he knows how bad of a night owl I am. In the sense that I'm not. At all."

"So I've heard..." Wonwoo replied, trying not to swallow too audibly.

"Oh right, you're Soonyoung's friend, aren't you? How did that happen?" Jun laughed as Wonwoo smiled slightly in amusement.

"I... honestly don't have an answer for that."

The conversation continued to flow naturally, and they surprisingly had a lot to talk about. Well, Jun was an easy person to talk to in general, but not overly hyper like Soonyoung. There were times where he would bob up and down in his seat in excitement, but his voice was incredibly soft, almost uncharacteristically so. They exchanged late introductions, and Wonwoo even successfully got Jun's phone number. Actually, the latter was the one who asked for his.

Unfortunately, Wonwoo soon noticed Jun's eyelids starting to droop, and it seemed that he was trying very hard to stay awake. Then right before it struck 2am, Jun's head fell against the desk and soft snoring could be heard.

"Oh wow, Soonyoung wasn't kidding..." Wonwoo murmured to himself as he took off his sweater and quietly tucked it under Jun's cheek as a makeshift pillow.

Jun's friend, Jihoon, came over to check on them. The shorter boy had insisted that he could handle getting Junhui (as Wonwoo had learned was his full first name) back to the dorm. Despite his body built, Wonwoo didn't doubt Jihoon's strength, he had seen how many stacks of dictionaries he was able to carry all on his own.

Jihoon had tried to give Wonwoo his sweater back, but Jun apparently had a pretty tight hold on it and wouldn't let go. "It's fine, he can just return it some other time."

But thanks to their body schedules, that time never came.

Wonwoo had been frequenting the library, still in hopes of meeting Junhui somehow, even if it was just by some dumb luck like last time. It wasn't like he wanted his sweater back that badly, but by now he had already came to terms with his "situation".

He had even met Jihoon by chance one day during lunch where he and Soonyoung were sharing a table, the latter had waved Wonwoo over and introduced the shorter boy as his boyfriend, much to Wonwoo's surprise. That would explain why Soonyoung had been frequenting the library so often. He was luckier though, unlike Jun, Jihoon worked both morning shifts and night shifts on different days.

"So when Jun mentioned a stalker..."

"That was me!" Soonyoung's tone was probably a little too proud, "I don't know why Jihoon calls me that though, I just like seeing him at work!"

"You can stay as long as you don't become a nuisance." Jihoon had sighed, rolling his eyes.

They seemed like an unlikely pair, but Wonwoo could tell that they truly cared for each other. Soonyoung was all over Jihoon, and the latter pretended to view his shows of affection with disdain, yet was very caring as he wiped the edges of Soonyoung's mouth for him when they were done eating.

There was only one word that could describe Wonwoo's feelings as he watched them. Envy.

If only he could afford to wake up just a little earlier... or if Junhui could somehow work even one night shift, then he'd be satisfied. Or at least that was what he thought. But as time continued to flow by with not even a single meeting with the blonde, he swore to any deity that he would confess his feelings right then and there if they could grant him just one more time of meeting Junhui.

Surprisingly, it worked. He was completely caught off guard when Jihoon brought Junhui in for lunch with them one day, explaining that the latter got the day off at his other part time job which usually took up his lunch period.

Slightly embarrassed and red in the face, Junhui returned Wonwoo's sweater, though the latter could have sworn that Junhui's grip on the sweater had tightened momentarily before allowing Wonwoo to take it.

Soonyoung wasn't kidding when he said he knew Junhui well, the two were constantly laughing at each other's inside jokes from class, and they had synchronized spazz-out moments. Jihoon clearly seemed slightly uncomfortable with it and eventually dragged Soonyoung off, which Wonwoo was secretly thankful for. Without Soonyoung's influence, Junhui became much quieter, but still pretty chipper compared to Wonwoo.

"It's strange, huh? I guess this is really the only time we match. Like, finally one of us isn't on the verge of falling asleep." Junhui joked, his hands tightened slightly on the table, and of course, that small action didn't escape Wonwoo's observation.

But Wonwoo had a promise to keep first. "I'd like to date you." What the hell was that? Would people normally say that? How did people normally ask their crushes out again? Oh right, they don't.

"What?" See? He made Junhui confused.

"I like you. I don't want to sound creepy, but I've been keeping an eye out for you since the first time we met." He really should have read those romance novels his peers had recommended...

"Oh my god..." Yup, he was definitely disgusted- "SAME!" Junhui blurted out, grabbing Wonwoo's hands in his ecstatically, "I actually didn't want to return your sweater because I thought then I wouldn't have an excuse to bump into you anymore, but wow, I thought I was creepy, but now we're _both_ creeps, isn't this great?! Sorry, I meant that as a joke..." Junhui quickly toned himself down, "But it's true that I've been attracted to you since I first saw your side profile at the library..."

"That's... awfully specific."

Junhui laughed as Wonwoo smiled softly. Junhui was right, it was great to talk under circumstances where both of them were fully awake, but it was too bad that these moments were hard to catch...

Thankfully they managed to worked it out somewhat. Wonwoo eventually got himself to wake up early to catch Junhui's shift, even though he still ended up falling asleep at the library. He'd always wake up to find a jacket draped over him, which he would return to a sleeping Junhui when the latter visited the library at night as "Jihoon's bodyguard".

These quiet "time-skipping" exchanges continued, and they would have lunch dates on weekends where they would catch up on all the lost time from the weekdays.

"So when is your favorite time of the day, Jun? Wonwoo?" Soonyoung had asked one day while they were talking about personality archetypes.

The two looked at each other and smiled, squeezing each other's hands gently under the table. The answer was obvious.

"Noon."

"Evening."

Soonyoung and Junhui burst into laughter while Wonwoo grinned and the corners of Jihoon's mouth quirked up into an amused smirk-like smile, maybe they weren't _quite_ there just yet.

"Let's compromise and say afternoon?"

"I guess that's just how we are. Always meeting each other halfway." Wonwoo chuckled, pulling Junhui closer, ignoring Soonyoung's catcalls in the process as he attempted to plant a kiss on his lover's forehead, but Junhui dodged away.

Amused by Wonwoo's quizzical look, Junhui quickly stole a kiss from Wonwoo's lips, leaving the latter pleasantly surprised. "Oops, I was aiming for your chin. Good thing we met halfway again."

"If you keep doing that I will be sure to let you meet halfway to Hell." Jihoon grumbled as Soonyoung shielded his eyes from the couple's intimate scene.

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"I mean it!"

**Author's Note:**

> I've been drowned by WonHui feels lately, man... Jun literally ships himself with everybody, I don't know which ship to root for, gdi. JUN.


End file.
